Unbalanced logo

Gary Sanchez and Mike Trout Are Comparably Dominant

Nobody is Mike Trout. But Gary Sanchez might be the Mike Trout of catchers.

By Matt MocarskyPublished 7 years ago 3 min read
Like
Mandatory Credit: Arturo Pardavila III

Baseball has never been the same since 2012. That was when Angels center-fielder Mike Trout made his season debut after being recalled from AAA Salt Lake. If you like baseball, then you know what happened next. If you don’t, I’m happy to talk about it. Trout took the league by storm, finishing one of the finest seasons ever by a rookie. Since then, he’s been the best player in the game, and by margins unlike we've seen in awhile.

In the recent past, we’ve seen another rookie take the league by storm, breaking all kinds of records. Since that player’s debut, he’s been the finest catcher in the game by many measures. That player is Gary Sanchez of the New York Yankees.

Like Trout, Gary Sanchez accumulated the most fWAR among rookies in the American League. To be clear, Sanchez isn’t a true “contemporary” of Trout — really, nobody is — but he does own the distinction of the second highest Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) ever by a rookie (168). This is the point I want to make: Mike Trout has led baseball in wRC+ since he debuted, and it hasn’t been close. Here’s a visual:

Data via FanGraphs

Out of the 375 qualified hitters since 2012, I took the top 23 for this graph. There’s a reason for that, which you’ll see later. For now, all you need to consider is the fact that these are the 23 best hitters in the game over the past six years. One of these hitters, represented by the towering bar on the far right, has outperformed the others, by a lot. Naturally, that’s Mike Trout. A 132 wRC+ is nothing to sneeze at; that’s what George Brett put up in his career. It’s also Anthony Rizzo’s, Tony Gwynn’s, and Rod Carew’s career mark. But when you look at the 132 wRC+ on a graph next to Mike Trout, he makes it look like a dwarf. It’s silly.

Since the start of the 2016 season, 23 catchers have accumulated at least 650 plate appearances (yes, that’s where the previous number comes from). 2016 happens to be Gary Sanchez’ rookie year. Let’s look at how those catchers have done in terms of wRC+:

Data via FanGraphs

Like the previous wRC+ chart, there is one player that has especially stood out in comparison to his peers. In this case, it’s Sanchez, who leaves Willson Contreras and Buster Posey in the dust. It’s especially important that we consider his dominance over Posey, who has long been considered the best catcher in the game. Gary Sanchez’ 142 wRC+ has been the eleventh best among all hitters in that time frame; no catcher has ranked this high in a two year span since Posey in 2012-2013. I think it’s safe to say that the twenty-four-year-old Sanchez has ascended to being the top offensive catcher in the game, because there has been such a gap between the top and everyone else since Sanchez came up.

Of course, there are better ways to look at players. Win Above Replacement (WAR), for example, is an all encompassing statistic that evaluates a player’s contributions at the plate, in the field, and on the base-paths. Mike Trout has been the cream of the crop in fWAR since reaching the bigs for good, and you’ll see how much better he’s been than everyone else in this graph:

Data via FanGraphs

Again, these are the top 23 batters since 2012. Mike Trout, of course, is the bar on the far left, which is ridiculous, because he seems to have most of the players on this graph doubled up. There’s not much else to say here, so we’ll look at how those 23 catchers have fared since Gary Sanchez was called up:

Data via FanGraphs

To reiterate, what Sanchez has done is on a much smaller scale, as Derek Norris is lesser competition than Ben Zobrist, but Sanchez paces the field as the high mark on the far left. There’s a lot of distance between him and the competition, which does include good players, such as Posey, Contreras, and Yadier Molina. It’s not close, just like it hasn’t been close between Mike Trout and the rest of Major League Baseball. In that way, Gary Sanchez to his catching peers has been what Mike Trout has been to all of his peers — comparably more dominant than everyone else.

***

This is my first article for The Unbalanced here on Vocal Media. I'm happy that the folks at The Unbalanced invited me to come on as a baseball staff writer, and I'm humbled that you are here to see what I have to say. I know we are going to have a great time writing, reading, and talking about baseball, so I'm excited to be in this position.

baseball
Like

About the Creator

Matt Mocarsky

Matt is an undergrad at the UConn School of Business. He knows that Joey Votto has been in an MLB leading 434 3-0 counts since 2010, and that Carlos Santana is second with only 388. You can follow him on twitter @matthewmocarsky.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.